


Ben did a magic trick. Nobody Noticed.

by bextons



Category: Never Have I Ever (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Magic, Eventual Death, Eventual Sex, Eventual violence, F/F, F/M, Future Fic, M/M, Magic School, Only Ben and Devi know each other, The Magicians AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-15
Updated: 2020-07-15
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:40:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,127
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25281769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bextons/pseuds/bextons
Summary: He followed the foliage down the path, for what seemed to be awhile, he could see sunlight on the other side of some bushes, (wasn’t it raining outside when I was walking here?) He walked through to the other side, and saw someone in the distance laying on a ledge of a concrete sign for Brakebills University with an interesting crest he had never seen before. It was a man sitting there, smoking a clove cigarette.
Relationships: Ben Gross & Devi Vishwakumar, Ben Gross/Devi Vishwakumar, Ben Gross/Paxton Hall-Yoshida, Eve (Never Have I Ever)/Fabiola Torres, Paxton Hall-Yoshida/Original Character(s)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 5





	Ben did a magic trick. Nobody Noticed.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Lyncaa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lyncaa/gifts).



> This is a AU of the Magicians universe (tv show/books blend). I know I have two other fics still pending, but I needed to write this one. It was coursing through my brain for a few days. The Magicians is my all time favorite tv show and I highly recommend it. This is going to be a blend of both universes (no major characters from the Magicians, so I'm not tagging it), and the only two characters that know each other is Ben and Devi. Everyone else will not know them. Paxton is gay in this fic, and Ben is bisexual. So just a fair warning of that. 
> 
> There are some scenes in this that are lifted directly from the show/the books "The Magicians", just to set the scene. Property of Universal, and Lev Grossman as I do not own any of it. It will diverge from there and be it's own thing. I basically had the idea because I was curious what magical disciplines the NHIE characters would have.   
> Enjoy!!!

Ben did a magic trick. Nobody noticed.   
Ben Gross made his way down a bustling pathway in the pouring rain on his way to his Harvard Grad school interview. He had just graduated from Yale, with honors. He had no idea what he wanted to do with his life. He actually hated all his pre-law classes, but was still interviewing for a spot in their law school out of courtesy to his parents making the interview happen. Part of him thought maybe he could just be a teacher, but knew it wouldn’t be fulfilling enough. He knew he wanted to change the world, but he didn’t know how. He always secretly wished to himself that magic was real, but always ended up thinking better of it. 

He had changed a lot during his time away at college. He realized how privileged he really was, especially after taking sociology for four years. He decided to not accept any more money from his parents after he graduated. He knew it was going to be hard to adjust to not being able to spend money on whatever he wanted whenever he wanted, but he knew he needed to forge his own path. A lot of his political and personal ideals had changed too, not that he would ever call himself a conservative, (He would never have voted for Trump in a million years - or really any current republican for that matter) but after his college education, he realized how wrong his parents were about their politics. It led to many heated debates between them when he visited.

He was nearing the entrance of a section of Harvard law where his alumni interview was taking place, and stopped at a coffee cart to get himself an americano, and he thought he saw someone he knew out of the corner of his eye. He was pretty sure he just saw Devi Vishwakumar, his perfect, beautiful, amazing, best friend and girlfriend from high school. They also used to be arch nemesis but that was way in the past. They had parted amicably in their Sophomore year of college, because long distance really wasn’t working, and trying to make it work while dealing with how grueling their class schedules were, while also rushing a fraternity/sorority respectively. They really tried their best, and he still loved her so much. They talk occasionally, but it was too hard for them to keep much of a friendship. 

He was almost positive that it was Devi, and the last time they had caught up he told her he had an alumni interview set up at Harvard. Did she decide to go to Harvard for grad school too? He had so many thoughts in his head just then about maybe getting back together with Devi… if she still felt the same way, of course. He shook the thoughts from his mind and went to take a seat inside. He didn’t see Devi when he got in there, so maybe he was just seeing things. Just then he dropped his portfolio and somehow a breeze came through the door as someone else opened it, and it sent in floating down the hall and into an elevator. It was strange, but he went to go pick it up, when the elevator clicked closed and he was being sent to the top floor. ( _are you fucking kidding me?_ )

He had already touched the button for the bottom floor where his interview was and sighed. He left his Americano down there. The door opened when he got to the top floor, but it wasn’t a floor at all… he was somehow facing a pathway in a small forest looking area. ( _what the fuck, this can’t be real, was i drugged?_ ) He walked out, because obviously he had to, it’s not like he can show up at his interview if he was fucked up. 

He followed the foliage down the path, for what seemed to be awhile, he could see sunlight on the other side of some bushes, ( _wasn’t it raining outside when I was walking here?_ ) He walked through to the other side, and saw someone in the distance laying on a ledge of a concrete sign for **Brakebills University** with an interesting crest he had never seen before. It was a man sitting there, smoking a clove cigarette. They were dressed really nicely, with a gray vest on top of a nice white dress shirt, tucked into cream colored press pants. He had brown curly hair, and was incredibly attractive. 

The mysterious man saw him coming, and as he got closer, tossed his cigarette on the ground and stomped it out. He was at least a good 5 inches taller than Ben.  
“Benjamin Gross?” he questioned with a hint of judgement, which Ben assumed was for his last name.   
“Um.. yeah?” Ben answered hesitantly.   
“You’re late, follow me,” the mysterious man replied.   
“Where are we?” Ben couldn’t help but ask.  
“Upstate New York,” he stated matter of factly. He could see that Ben was confused by this, as most prospective students usually were, “you’ve been offered a preliminary exam for entry into the graduate program.

Ben was so confused… he was just in Massachusetts… he figured he was dreaming and should just roll with it, but even Ben in his dreams questioned everything. “Am I hallucinating?”   
“If you were, how would asking me help?” he responded with a bit of a laugh and a funny look on his face, “now come on, you don’t want to miss it.” 

Ben followed him into the building, it looked like Yale, but crossed with an old German castle. It was massive. He could see off into the distance what looked like a topiary maze straight out of “The Shining”, a huge fountain, and there were a fuck ton of trees everywhere. His thoughts were broken when the man turned back to him and said, “well here we are, gesturing towards a door down the hall. My name is Paxton, by the way. Hope you make it in.” 

Paxton winked at him, and walked away. He made his way down the hall and entered a huge room that looked like a lecture hall. There was a very tall, well built black man at the front of the room who gestured for him to come up. He didn’t say a word, but handed Ben a blue book that already had his name on the cover. How did this man know who he was already? What the fuck was going on. 

He noticed that there were at least 100 other people in there, and took his blue book and sat in the back. He noticed that a few rows ahead of him was the woman he thought looked like Devi. She had put her hair up into a messy top knot, and he saw it: a small Virgo constellation tattoo on the back of her neck. It was definitely Devi, because they had gotten each other’s zodiac sign constellation tattoos together. He had Aries for Devi, but it was on the inside of his wrist where he could always easily look down and see it and smile.   
He broke free of his thoughts and focused on the test he needed to take to get into whatever this grad school program was. He opened the booklet, and it was completely blank. He looked around at everyone else and could tell they had to have words but just then he noticed that the page started to fill with words.

A lot of the test was calculus, pretty basic stuff for Ben. There were also really bizarre questions too, and some of them seemed totally pointless. One of them showed him the back of a playing card—not an actual card but a drawing of the back of a playing card, and asked him to guess what card it was. How did that make sense?

Or later on the test gave him a passage from The Tempest, then asked him to make up a fake language, and then translate the Shakespeare into the made-up language. He was then asked questions about the grammar and orthography of his made-up language, and then—honestly, what was the point?—questions about the made-up geography and culture and society of the made-up country where his made-up language was so fluently spoken. Then he had to translate the original passage from the fake language back into English, paying particular attention to any resulting distortions in grammar, word choice, and meaning. Seriously. 

He always gave everything he had on tests, but in this case he wasn’t totally sure what he was supposed to give. The test also changed as he took it. The reading-comprehension section showed him a paragraph that vanished as he read it, then quizzed him on its contents. Some new kind of computerized blue book—hadn’t he read somewhere that somebody was working on that? Digital ink? He was asked to draw a rabbit that wouldn’t keep still as he drew it—as soon as it had paws it scratched itself luxuriously and then went hopping off around the page, nibbling at the other questions, so that he had to chase it with the pencil to finish filling in the fur. He wound up pacifying it with some hastily sketched radishes and then drawing a fence around it to keep it in line. 

Soon he forgot about everything else except putting a satisfactory chunk of his neat handwriting next to one question after another, appeasing whatever perverse demands the test made on him. It was an hour before he even looked up from his desk. He noticed quite a few empty desks around him, which terrified him. Was he going to slow? He’s not used to being out-tested by anyone other than maybe Devi, who he looked up to and noticed she was still there as well.   
When Ben flipped to the next page of the test booklet it was blank except for a single word in the center of the page: FIN, in swirly italic type, like at the end of an old movie.

He got up from the desk, and walked down the steps and handed in his bluebook to the man who had given it to him a few hours before. He was exhausted and so confused as to what the fuck was going on. If this was a dream, it was a little too weird, and a little too vivid to be a dream. The man told him to wait in the next room over while they graded it. He took one last glance over at Devi and she had her cute little concentration face on — she bites her lip with her palm on her chin tapping her temple with her fingers. 

The other room was quiet, there were only about 20 people left. Had their tests already been graded and they got in? Or did they not pass and were sent packing. He was questioning everything for a good 10 minutes when he noticed Devi exiting the room. She looked panicked, and that’s when she noticed Ben. Her eyes sparked with recognition and her lips curled into a small smile, but immediately fell into a face of worry. 

“Thank God, I actually know someone here. This is crazy, what the fuck is going on?” she said as she sat down next to Ben. She was already rambling and everyone around them looked at them funny. “Pinch me, Ben! I need to know this is real.” 

  
He pinched her, and she pinched him right back… this was definitely real. They spent a few minutes in silence just processing what just happened.   
“This is magic right? Is this actually Hogwarts and they were just wrong about the age you become a wizard? Or are we in Fillory? No there’s no way… I’ve never heard of Brakebills in any fantasy novel I’ve read. What about you Ben?” she was rambling again, and Ben couldn’t help but smile because he had missed this so much.   
“Well Devi, nice to see you too. I am starting to think this is definitely a magic school of some sort, but I also have never heard of Brakebills,” he responded.

He held out his hand, and she accepted. They laced their fingers together as if no time had passed between the last time they had held hands. It was like instant comfort for them, and she rested her head on his shoulder as they awaited results. A few people had been called back into the testing room, and it must have been more than they thought, because they looked around and it was just the two of them. Ben’s name was called a few minutes later. 

**Author's Note:**

> Let me know what you think!   
> you can follow me on tumblr @ lewisonjaren, and twitter @hedgewitchs. I also host a NHIE podcast, and previously hosted a Magicians podcast (for 4 years)  
> https://nhie.fireside.fm/  
> https://physicalkidspod.fireside.fm/


End file.
